Monday, February 23, 2015

The West’s rarest fishes are getting help from CNHP: Database planning at the Upper Colorado and San Juan River basins fish recovery programs’ researchers meeting

Database and web-application developer Kirstin Holfelder and zoologist Rob Schorr attended the 34th annual Researcher’s Meeting of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program and San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program in Moab, Utah. Holfelder gave a talk describing the structure of the newly-developed and evolving Species Tagging, Research, and Management System (STReaMS). Holfelder is the brains behind an interactive database and web-accessible interface that will allow researchers and managers access to decades-worth of rare fish data from Colorado and San Juan rivers research and monitoring efforts. These data are used to monitor some of the West’s rarest fish species, including Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), humpback chub (Gila cypha), bonytail chub (Gila elegans), and razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus). Holfelder and Schorr were able to interact with the West’s premier fish biologists and discuss how researchers and managers want access to fish data.

Kirstin Holfelder presents the structure of STReaMS, the developing database system for rare fish data in Upper Colorado and San Juan river basins.

Kirstin Holfelder enjoys sights at Arches National Park during downtime in Moab, Utah.